Roadtrip!
by Xelac
Summary: The Portal characters find themselves in a strange world-our world. They must return to their own, but their only lead is to go to Michigan, where Aperture is in their world. But, there's a problem... They found themselves in Arkansas! ON HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This fanfiction itself is not to be taken seriously, as is pretty much all of my fics that involve human transformation, but in terms of the settings in this fic, I want it to be realistic since it occurs in the 'real world'. I would like some assistance in gathering information because of this. My profile has more information on what I'm looking for.**

**And another thing: The …s mean that the point of view is switching between the girls and the Portal characters, but other than that it might switch freely between characters of that group.**

As soon as Chell regained consciousness, she knew something was wrong. The last thing she could remember was falling asleep in the wheat field, with the long stalks surrounding her, but now the grass beneath her was much shorter with slightly damp soil underneath. It was a little warmer outside than it was in the Enrichment Centre, even at noon. However, the sun was now beating down with much less mercy. Before, the smell of wheat was the only relief after breathing in chemicals for so long, but now the air was different. She couldn't quite place it.

Even though she was still outside, still free, as far as she knew at least, it was still unsettling as she realized she was somewhere _very_ different from the place she last remembered being in.

She opened her eyes and pushed herself up, squinting in the sunlight. She felt stiff and exhausted, but that wasn't too surprising even if nothing was going on. As her eyes adjusted, she looked around, her eyes widening. She was in a small, grassy field. To her right, just a few feet away, was a road that ran through a neighborhood with mid-sized red brick houses on either side of the field and across the road. Behind her, the rippling of a creek that ran under the road mingled with the hum of insects. To her left, the small field stretched out a ways until it reached the edge of a forest. As good as it was that she had found civilization, she felt very uneasy. There was no way that it just appeared here over night. What if she wasn't free at all?

She almost didn't notice the other two people who were unconscious in the field until one of them moaned. There was a man and a woman lying nearby. They were lying on their sides like they were asleep, but the man was stirring. He had blond hair falling messily around his face, and wore a light blue short-sleeved dress shirt and jean shorts.

Chell reached out and gave him a gentle shake. He let out another moan and his blue eyes fluttered open. He looked at her for a moment before suddenly sitting up.

"Oh, hey!" he exclaimed, "You're that test subject!"

Recognizing his voice, she immediately leaped back; ready for a fight or flight, and considering what he did before it had better be fight.

"Oi, calm down!" Wheatley said nervously, scrambling to his feet, "I know that I was all bossy and, and monstrous before, but, err…"

Deciding he wasn't an immediate threat, she figured she would have to be the one to point out a very important detail. With her head tilted questioningly, she pointed at him.

"Umm… What about me?" he asked, clearly not getting. Frustratedly, she jabbed him in the chest and he looked down. "Wha- WHAT?"

He fell to the ground, squirming and shrieking, "OH GOD HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I CAN'T BE IN A BODY LIKE THIS! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?"

Chell face palmed. He apparently didn't notice that he had been standing perfectly fine a moment ago. She glanced over at the woman who was stirring nearby, guessing who _she_ was. She had silverish blond hair that fell as far as her shoulders, and wore a silverish grey shirt whose sleeves went down to her elbows and black pants that stopped at her ankles. She gave her a shake and quickly stepped back, figuring that she would react violently to their situation unless she knew what was going on.

When her eyes opened, they were, as predicted, dark gold. Chell figured it wouldn't take long for GLaDOS to figure out their predicament. A few seconds after she woke up, she began to tense.

"I certainly hope _you_ had nothing to do with this," she said, her voice dripping with anger as she glared up at Chell. She calmly shook her head; oddly enough feeling more relaxed around the former omnipotent AI than the idiot still flailing around behind her.

Slowly and carefully, the former AI pushed herself up, apparently trying to prove herself better than Wheatley, which at the moment wouldn't be _that_ hard. She managed to stand up, stumbling a little clumsily before regaining her balance, and glanced around at their surroundings, confusion showing a bit under all the anger. Wheatley, finally calming down a bit to follow suite, had stopped his little ground-based dance to rest a moment before trying to stand as well. He fell back down twice before finally finding his footing with some reluctant help from Chell. GLaDOS watched his failure with a smirk, glad that _she_ knew how to not end up like that.

"Um, so, does anyone have any bloody idea on what's going on?" he asked now that everyone was awake and in an upright position. He had one hand on Chell's shoulder for support, who stood rigidly beside him.

"All I can say is it seems you two did _not_ cause Aperture's greatest catastrophe. Congratulations. This certainly overrides that," GLaDOS answered venomously.

"Right, err, sorry about that, um, last catastrophe," he said uncertainly.

"We have more important things to worry about than meaningless apologies," she replied, "Or at least, I do. You, moron, should feel right at home in that body, more so than you did in mine."

He stiffened. "What? Why for god's sake would I feel better as a smelly human? Err, no offence!" he quickly said to Chell, who merely sidestepped. He lost his grip on her shoulder and fell to the ground once again.

He apparently still didn't remember standing perfectly fine five minutes ago.

…

Behind a nearby tree, two teenage girls watched the mysterious trio.

"That trio sure is mysterious, isn't it?" said one of the girls, who was leaning against the side of the tree that was opposite to the group.

Her sister, who was sitting in the shade replied, "I just wonder why they're acting like that."

The two girls were technically identical twins. They both had long, light brown hair and blue eyes. However, the one leaning against the tree had bangs that fell in front of her eyes while the other did not. She wore a red T-shirt and khaki shorts while her sister who was sitting on the ground wore a turquoise T-shirt and jean shorts.

"They're a lot like the Portal characters," the first one observed, her eyes narrowing, "Exact voices, right behavior… They apparently don't know how to be human," she added with a chuckle.

"Do you think they're cosplayers?" the second asked, "They look like they're acting out a scene from a bad fanfiction."

"That doesn't explain the voices," the first argued, "Believe me, if anyone could voice and act out the Portal characters that well, they'd be YouTube celebrities, and I would know about them. Not to mention they're not entirely in costume."

One of the trio looked like Chell, but wasn't wearing a jumpsuit. She wore an orange T-shirt and tan pants.

"Maybe they're just rehearsing," the second suggested.

"That still doesn't seem to explain everything," mused the first.

"What are you suggesting?" asked the second.

"Something insane for sure. Let's go talk to them."

…

As Wheatley tried for the fifth time to regain his footing without help, two girls approached. Oddly enough, they looked almost identical.

"Are you cosplayers?" the one wearing a red shirt asked.

"Um, what exactly are cosplayers?" Wheatley asked politely, still on the ground and hoping that wasn't a stupid question among humans.

The girls exchanged a glance, and then examined each of them closely. "What exactly are you doing?" the one wearing a turquoise shirt asked, curiously watching him try once again to stand.

"That does not concern you," GLaDOS said slowly, glaring at them, "I suggest you leave us alone."

The first teen turned to her with a look of alarm.

Avoiding the former AI's gaze, she said in a soft voice, "Or what?"

GLaDOS paused, since she didn't really have any way of threatening these humans anymore.

Since Wheatley was still failing at what he did perfectly well about seven minutes ago, the second girl walked over to him to help him stand.

"Thanks," he said, "You see, I got a bit of an injury by, err…"

"Shooting into space?" the first girl said quickly.

"Yes," he replied, "Wait, no, err, what?" He face palmed.

"Well done, moron," GLaDOS hissed.

"I am NOT a moron!" he protested loudly.

"You didn't have to yell in my ear," the second girl muttered, annoyed.

"Sorry…"

The first took a step closer, carefully watching them. "Who are you? I get the feeling you're not from around here."

"Well, no we're not…" Wheatley said uncertainly.

"I don't suppose you could tell us where?"

"And why should we tell you that?" GLaDOS asked menacingly.

The girl took a step back, watching her warily. "You… Wouldn't be familiar with a game called Portal, would you?" she asked.

"You know, it's not that you're fat," the other girl said meanwhile, "It's just that a grown man weighs considerably more than a 15-year-old girl."

"Oh, right…" Wheatley muttered, shifting to support his own weight more.

"Why would we be interested in a game?" GLaDOS narrowed her eyes.

"Well," the girl explained, suddenly acting cocky, "It's about someone who's trapped in a science facility and is forced to solve puzzles with a gun that shoots portals. Hence the name 'Portal'."

All eyes flashed to her in surprise. She shifted uncomfortably under the attention.

"Um, who are you?" Wheatley asked.

"Oh, I'm Ivy," the girl in red introduced.

"And I'm Christina," said the other girl, "Or Tina for short."

"And you haven't introduced yourselves," Ivy pointed out.

"I'm beginning to wonder if we even have to," GLaDOS said suspiciously, "Perhaps we should look into this… game of yours."

"In that case, follow us," Ivy said happily, walking out into the road.

Christina abandoned Wheatley to fall over on his own and ran over to her sister.

"You're just going to let strangers into our house?" she asked in a whisper.

"Our parents won't be home for hours!" Ivy protested.

"That's not the point!"

Well, they ended up walking there anyway. Ivy kept in the lead while Tina held back to help Wheatley. GLaDOS, refusing to show weakness, merely kept a hand on Chell's shoulder for support while she pretended to not notice.

Thankfully, they only had to walk a short distance to reach the girl's house. Inside, they were greeted with a living room with a few toys littered about and a small, metal, spiraling staircase off to the right leading straight up.

"So… You guys want something to drink?" Ivy asked hesitantly, remembering her manners.

_Do humans have to accept an offer like that?_ Wheatley wondered. Drinking didn't sound hard, but neither did walking. He didn't want to embarrass himself anymore than he already had.

"I think it would be more productive for us to just get down to business," GLaDOS said bluntly.

"LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!" the girls randomly sang, "TO DEFEAT... THE HUNS! …Sorry."

The Portal characters stared at them with confusion. They merely snickered at their expressions.

"Um, anyway," Ivy said seriously, as if that didn't happen, "If by business you meant that game we told you about, rather than defeating the Huns, we can go upstairs for that."

"What sort of game is it, exactly?" Wheatley asked.

"A video game," she replied, "Created by Valve. The first Portal game came out in 2007 as mostly an experiment on this new type of gameplay, which involved solving puzzles with portals. However, the game went on to win many awards and became very popular. _That_ game began with the test subject in question waking up and ended with her destroying the AI who ran the facility…" she rambled. After noticing the suspicious stares of their guests, she went on, "Um, and the second game began an undisclosed amount of time later in which the same test subject woke up, and a lot more stuff happens that would take a long time to explain…"

"Why don't we just show it to you?" Christina suggested.

"Yes… Why don't you?" GLaDOS replied menacingly.

They climbed the spiral stairway upward into a small, office-looking area. Through a door across from the stairs was a large, dark room. Ivy flicked a switch, turning on the light. Covering the wall opposite from the door was a fabric movie screen with a projector hanging from the ceiling. Facing the screen were two rows of large, tan colored armchairs with three chairs in each row. The light was provided by lamps that hung in a row on either side of the room, and in the middle of the open, carpeted space between the chairs and the screen was an air mattress and several pillows and blankets. Frankly, it looked like it was used more for sleepovers than movie watching.

Ivy pulled a case labeled "Portal 2" out of a shelf crammed with other similar cases and slid a disk into a PS3 that sat on the floor near the screen. She picked up a wireless controller and jumped into the middle chair of the first row.

"Alright then," she said, trying to sound casual despite the odd situation, "Let's get… down to business."

"To defeat the Huns?" her sister asked.

"Sure, why not."

**A/N: I'm sorry, after I made GLaDOS say that line I had to quote Mulan. There will probably be more references in the next chapter. There's probably going to be a few very silly chapters of everyone messing around at the house before they actually set out on the trip this fic is about.**


	2. Chapter 2

It didn't take long for the supposed Portal characters to get shocked into silence while watching some girl play a video game that was their life word for word. The girls noticed their immediate discomfort after watching the Wheatley in the game crash an Extended Relaxation Vault into absolutely everything ("I wasn't _that_ bad," the Wheatley in real life grumbled, not noticing that the girls heard him and confirmed their suspicions).

Ivy tried to lighten the mood by cracking a few jokes about the game and purposefully failing a few times. She only received a few small smiles, maybe even a chuckle, from her audience, and GLaDOS clearly wasn't buying any of it, so she quickly shut up and focused on the virtual testing that not to long ago was very real for most of the people in the room.

"It's you, isn't it?" Christina suddenly asked, spinning around to face the Portal characters, "You're the guys from this game."

"Oh, uh, well, you-you see-" Wheatley stammered in reply before GLaDOS silenced him with a glare.

"What I want to know," she said carefully, like she was lecturing much younger children, "Is why you think that would be possible."

Ivy paused in the game long enough to get killed by a turret and said something really intelligent like "Oh," in response. As the loading screen came up, she turned and said, "I know it's scientifically… not scientific…"

"Scientifically not scientific?" Tina asked with a humorous grin.

"Yes," Ivy calmly replied, "It makes sense. Anyway, it seems really illogical, err, not scientific, whatever, but you know, you sound _exactly_ like they do, act exactly like they do, and you didn't really ask questions throughout my entire play through, which could suggest you already knew what was going on but I'm just rambling now…" She trailed off when she realized everyone was staring at her.

"Well then," Wheatley said.

"Anyway," Tina said.

"Um, yeah," Ivy said, "This is a really weird situation. If your just normal people, why were you arguing like that out there, and why did you follow us in the first place?"

"Now, those are all very technical questions…" Wheatley stalled, since he wasn't sure whether it would be a good idea to convince the girls otherwise or too tell them the truth.

"Wheatley?" Ivy asked.

"Yes?"

"Is that your name?"

"Well, yeah."

"I see."

Wheatley, of course, was a little confused until GLaDOS elbowed him in the ribs, which she remembered was a human way of saying "shut up", "you're being an idiot", or both.

"Oh," he murmured.

"So, is it confirmed?" Tina asked.

After a pause, GLaDOS replied, "Alright, yes. What does that mean to you?"

"It means…" Ivy paused for a second, "It means you guys must be in a lot of trouble."

"I suppose we are," Wheatley agreed, "Can you help?"

"Maybe," the girl replied, "At least we know your situation and where you come from. Most people would find it odd that you don't know how to be human."

"Okay, so you may be able to help us control these pitiful human bodies," GLaDOS said bitterly, "But you're children. How can you help us past that? Not to mention that I've done enough research to figure out how to control this body myself."

The hot-tempered former AI stood up and moved carefully toward the door. Ivy stood up on her chair and jumped onto the floor, making a noticeable thud.

"You may know about human anatomy, but what about society?"

GLaDOS turned threateningly to face the teenager challenging her. The girl seemed nervous, but stood her ground.

"Yeah, this is basically the same world. Same planet, same countries, but different universe. We don't have Aperture, Black Mesa, or the more advanced technology that came with them, not to mention that Portal 2 occurred a _long_ time into the future. You need to at least learn the rules," Ivy stated.

_Humans are still humans,_ GLaDOS thought, _no matter what "universe". I still have my research on-wait a minute…_

She had no idea how she became human, or what sort of process had occurred. As far as she knew, all of her research and memories were shoved into this little human head, but a human brain can only hold so much. What if it was simply forgotten?

The former AI suddenly felt what she was certain was either nausea, dizziness, or both and paled. What if by some miracle she returned to her facility only to find her body an empty husk? Years of research could have just been annihilated simply because a single human can't remember even a tiny fraction of it.

"Are you alright?" Tina asked gently.

GLaDOS realized she had been clutching her head like she had a terrible headache, which wasn't far fetched.

"We have to get back quickly," she said, her voice taut.

"How?" Wheatley asked quietly.

For once, he had asked a useful question, one that she couldn't answer. Yet. She was going to figure this out; she was the greatest scientist in the world. Well, her world at least, but she was probably better than any in this one if they didn't have anything like Aperture.

She turned back to the girls, "Do you have an Atlas?"

"You mean a book with maps and not the testing robot, right?" Ivy asked jokingly. GLaDOS's glare made it obvious what she meant.

They went downstairs. The girls retrieved a thick paperback book and set on the glass top of the kitchen table. GLaDOS flipped to a map of the United States and pointed to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

"In our universe, around here is where Aperture is located," she explained, "Now, where are we?" she asked the girls.

"Well…" Ivy also pointed to Michigan, then slid her finger south, far south. "Around here," she said, her finger stopping on Arkansas. The former AI groaned.

"What're you planning?" the girl asked.

"I have a vague hunch that if what we have figured out so far is correct and we are indeed in a different universe," the former AI explained, "Then there must be some sort of rift in space, a portal between the two worlds that has opened and sucked us through, apparently turning us human. We need to find this rift, and it could be anywhere. I thought Aperture's location could be a start, but it's hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away."

Chell looked over her shoulder at the map. They were hundreds of miles south of where Aperture supposedly was, huh? That explained the dramatic change of scenery and the heat. She didn't have much experience of the world outside of Aperture, but she somehow remembered that the South was usually warmer than the North.

"…Well, it is the only lead we've got," Wheatley muttered.

_This rift could be in China for all we know, _Chell thought doubtfully.

"I suppose we have nothing to lose," GLaDOS pointed out, sounding a bit bitter, "What method of transportation is available?" she asked the teenage girls.

"We have a car…" Tina replied uncertainly.

GLaDOS smirked. "I ought to be able to figure out how to use it."

"What about road laws?" Ivy pointed out, "You guys don't want to attract attention to yourselves. If you get pulled over, since you don't have a driver's license or any form of identification, you'll all get jailed for sure and questioned about where you came from."

"Before you go running off," Tina continued, "At least research the laws, and we need to teach you how to act in human society-"

"Oh, God, what was _that?_" Wheatley suddenly yelped, clutching his stomach.

"What is it now, Wheatley?" Ivy asked sweetly.

"I… I felt something weird right here," he answered nervously. His stomach rumbled again. "Is that natural?"

"You're just hungry," the girl answered like she was talking to a child, "Our parents won't be home until seven o'clock, and it's almost five. They left us some money for pizza, and there's enough to get one big enough for all of us."

The girls thankfully only had to do a brief overview on the method of eating for the former AIs when the pizza arrived and advised them to eat slowly.

"And remember to eat with your mouth closed," Ivy continued, "Because otherwise it's disgusting. No one wants to see what's going on in there."

"I always hated it when humans did that," Wheatley said, taking an experimental bite of pizza.

The girls had given them water, but then introduced them to caffeine. To be more precise, soda.

GLaDOS openly rejected it; Chell took one sip and didn't touch it afterwards. Wheatley decided he was interested in its unusual taste, and the girls were happy to serve more.

In other words, they were setting him up for a sugar high.

"I-I don't know why, but this stuff is starting to make-make me feel so-so happy!" Wheatley exclaimed.

"You're getting rather loud as well," GLaDOS pointed out with an edge to her voice. However, Wheatley didn't notice it at all. He got up and paced restlessly around the room as if he didn't have any trouble walking before.

The girls, being the nice hostesses that they had been taught to be, picked up and threw away all of the paper plates as their guests finished their meal.

"Since you don't have anything else to do tonight-" Ivy began.

"If Michigan is our only lead," GLaDOS interrupted, "Then we must set out for it as soon as possible."

The former AI was clenching the armrests of the chair she was sitting in without realizing it. She looked up and noticed Ivy was giving her a look of pity, but as soon as their gazes met, the girl looked away.

"We know that," Tina said, "But there's not much you can do right now. When our parents come home from that party, we can make something up to tell them so that they will help you."

"But meanwhile, we do need _something_ to keep us occupied," Ivy said mischievously.

"We could watch Mulan," her twin sister suggested, and they both giggled.

"Yeah, we do need something to do," Wheatley agreed, speaking much faster than usual and taking another drink of Coca-Cola.

"We could play Portal 2 Co-op," Ivy suggested, "That part happens after all that you three went through."

"The Cooperative Testing Initiative?" GLaDOS asked.

"Yep."

"Oh! Oh! I wanna play!" Wheatley said excitedly.

"You sound like a child," GLaDOS snapped at him. He pouted at her for a second before racing up the stairs like he'd been using legs his entire life. Like a _boss_.

"Maybe you should drink caffeine," Ivy jokingly told GLaDOS, who glared daggers at her.

Shrugging, the twins followed the hyper former AI up the spiral staircase, leaving GLaDOS and Chell alone.

Chell, after a moment of awkward silence, gave her a half-hearted wave before following suite.

Oh well. GLaDOS had better things to do. She located a computer and started researching.

It appeared that the girls were hyped up on sugar as well, and she could occasionally hear yelling and thumping from the floor above. Not that it mattered. If they wanted to act like idiots while she worked to get them home, or at least where they belonged, so be it. They wouldn't have done much good if they tried to help, anyway.

She found some notebook paper and a pencil, and wrote down any important information since she didn't trust this human brain to remember anything. It didn't seem to take long for her to have two and a half pages filled front and back. Then she glanced at the clock.

…

"That's why you don't just charge into a test chamber without first checking for turrets," Ivy said sagely while the GLaDOS in the game ridiculed them for failure.

"I didn't see them!" Wheatley protested.

"That's why you have to be careful."

"Hey." They heard a voice from the doorway and turned around.

"Didn't you say that your parents would be home by seven?" GLaDOS asked coldly.

The girls' eyes widened. "What time is it?" Tina asked nervously.

"Almost nine."

There was a tense moment of silence.

The girls suddenly got up and sprinted downstairs and stared at the clock for about a minute. 8:47. Suddenly worried, they fought over the phone for a bit before one of them finally managed to dial a number and they waited with both their ears close to the speaker.

No answer.

**A/N: Sorry about the wait. School is out, but we had homework up to the last weekend.**

…**Not to mention that I discovered Dwarves Vs. Zombies on Minecraft and found a really good server for it. If you're interested, the IP is:**

**dvz. xelaservers. com (without spaces)**

**And no, I don't host it. It's a coincidence that the owner has a name similar to mine. Anyway, hopefully updating will increase now that school is over with for the summer, as long as procrastination doesn't kick in.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Well, incase you were unaware, I put up a poll in my profile asking what you guys wanted me to update after I returned from Band Camp. Out of a grand total of seven votes, three were for Roadtrip, so here you go (the other four were spread out). I guess not many people knew about the poll since the one-shot I put the information about it in was so crappy and not many people read it. Oh well.**

The girls tried to call about five more times before giving up.

"So, where did your parents go, anyway?" Wheatley tentatively asked when they finally put the phone down.

"They took our little sister to a birthday party and stayed to help supervise-" Tina replied.

"You know, with about twenty kids under the age of seven running around, they needed all the help they could get," Ivy put in.

"The party was supposed to end at six thirty, and they said they would stay to help clean up and be back by seven-"

"But even if those kids made the biggest mess in the world they would have still answered the phone. We called a friend and they said our parents left on time…"

The girls were silent for a moment.

"You know, they could have just abandoned you," GLaDOS helpfully suggested from the doorway, "I wouldn't blame them."

_Now's not the time for that,_ Chell thought, shooting her a glare.

"Why would they take our five-year-old sister, who says 'toilet' over and over again because she thinks it's funny, but not us?" Ivy questioned.

"Look, this isn't important," Wheatley interjected, "Well, it is important, for you I suppose, but what I mean is that it's not important for us to be talking about whether or not your parents abandoned you. Err; it could be important if they actually did, but you know, I don't think it's normal for humans to do that-" he rambled.

"Wheatley…" Ivy interrupted, "Just stop talking before you say something _really_ stupid."

Oddly enough, he quieted down, fidgeting uncomfortably. In fact, no one was really sure what to do at this point.

"Meow."

They all jumped with surprise. Unfazed, a calico cat stood at their feet, glaring up at them.

"Me-yow," it demanded.

Tina knelt down and picked the cat up, scratching under its chin while it glared at everyone as if to say '_See? This is what humans are supposed to do.'_

After a few second the cat became bored and jumped out of her arms. It proceeded to stalk into the kitchen, meowing commands as it went.

"Well, that was our cat, Molly," Ivy said casually, "Who is the actual owner of this house, or so she thinks."

"Mah-oooooooow," came a disapproving cry from the kitchen.

"I thought cats were supposed to be quiet," Wheatley noted, thankful for the distraction.

"Believe me, they're not," GLaDOS sighed, leaving the room.

"So, what do we do now?" Tina asked nervously.

"If they're not back by morning, we'll know we're in a lot of trouble," her sister replied. "In the meantime, I'm not sure. There's nothing helpful we can do, so…"

"Go back to whatever we were doing earlier?" Tina suggested.

"Yeah."

They were about to walk back upstairs when-

"Uh-oh!"

As the childish cry echoed from the kitchen, Chell was the only one who reacted quickly enough. She pushed everyone else into the living room while bullets sprayed around the kitchen.

When the noise died away with a quiet "Goodnight…" they returned to the kitchen to investigate.

In the corner of the kitchen was a little cat bed upon which a dead turret laid awkwardly on its side.

Wheatley was the first to pop the question.

"How did that get there?" he asked.

"Where's the cat?" Ivy questioned, looking around, "I thought she came in here to lie down… If she didn't get shot and killed she should be loudly complaining."

The girls made a quick search of the kitchen and surrounding rooms, coming up with nothing while GLaDOS silently examined the scene from the doorway.

"I think your cat is gone," she finally spoke up, "Think about it. The cat's disappeared, but now we have a turret, which probably appeared on the cat bed standing up, but lost its balance and fell over."

"So, you think Molly and the turret switched places or something?" Ivy asked.

"And you guys appeared while our parents and sister disappeared," Tina pointed out.

"But they didn't appear anywhere near where our parents were," Ivy said.

"Location might not matter," the former AI answered, "Think of it as being similar to diffusion. For something to come in, something else must come out."

"That makes sense…"

They began to deliberate on their next move. Of course, it was too boring for the authoress to bother writing down or even come up with until the subject on what the girls are to do came up. (Yeah, I broke the fourth wall. What now?)

"We have to come with you!" Tina insisted, "Our family is in your world, we need to make sure they come out!"

"Even if we find a way back in, there's no telling whether or not they will come out after we enter. They may reappear back here or elsewhere entirely," GLaDOS reasoned.

"But that's just it. We don't know. So, we might as well go with you," Ivy countered, "Besides, how long is this journey going to take?"

"About 19 hours."

"See? That would be with constant driving and no stopping. You will have to stop for food and bathroom breaks, not to mention you'll have to sleep at some point. Do you even know how to deal with a public bathroom?"

The former AIs sheepishly glanced at each other.

Ivy sighed. "You don't know how to behave in human society, and the last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourselves. We can help you along the way, and hopefully get our parents and little sister back, too."

GLaDOS remained silent for a moment. Wheatley and Chell were understandably silent (or at least Wheatley was, Chell's always silent), since they figured if they tried to go against whatever she decided it would be like trying to convince a brick wall to fall down.

"Fine," she finally replied, "But, if either of you slow us down, we will leave you on the side of the road no matter where we are."

The girls nodded eagerly, undaunted.

**A/N: Here's a very sad fact: I've gotten more work done on my AP Biology summer homework than I have on any worthwhile fanfiction. And, after finally getting this next chapter out, it's really short and not that important.**

**This first part of the story was very awkward and prone to create writer's block. Hopefully, in the next part, when we finally set out on the road trip to Michigan, things will smooth out and become easier to write.**


End file.
